Turkish army says killed 34 Kurdish militants in air strikes in northern Iraq

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes launched air strikes against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq on Monday, killing 34 militants in two separate bombardments, the military said.

The strikes targeted militants in Iraq's Zap region and were conducted shortly after midnight and before noon, the military said in a statement.

PKK militants, who have fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast, have camps in the mountains of northern Iraq, where they have been regularly hit by Turkish warplanes since a two-year ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, including several thousand since the fighting resumed after the ceasefire.

The PKK, which Turkey has blamed for multiple deadly bomb attacks in cities over the last year, is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by David Dolan)